Rise and Fall

RISE AND FALL
Luke 2:34 This one is assigned for the fall and rise of many – Simeon the prophet…
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph had to bring Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to be dedicated.  This time for dedication and purification was forty days after the birth of a child according to Jewish Law. 
A man named Simeon was also in the Temple at the time and The Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen Jesus, God's anointed King. Holy Spirit had prompted him to go to the Temple that day to answer Simeon’s lifelong prayer of faithfully waiting and expecting the Messiah to come soon. And so when Mary and Joseph arrived to present the baby Jesus to the Lord in obedience to the law, Simeon realised that his prayer had been answered, and he greeted them. He took the child in his arms and began praising God.
‘Lord’ he said, I have seen him as you promised me I would. I have seen the Saviour you have given to the world. He is the Light that will shine upon the nations, and he will be the glory of your people Israel! now I can die in peace. (Luke 2:29)
Joseph and Mary just stood there, marvelling at what was being said about Jesus.

Meanwhile, a group of highly esteemed Wise Men called Magi set out from Babylon in the East. Babylon was the first civilization in the East to study and interpret the movement of the stars and planets as far back as 700 BC. Planets in those times were also referred to as stars and sometimes as wandering stars. There were many such Magi, astrologers and astronomers who served the kings of Babylon. These men also knew the writings of the Jewish scrolls and would have had knowledge of the prophesies concerning the Messiah and the predicted whereabouts of his birth. This was because of the influence of the Jewish religion during the seventy years internment of Israel in Babylon, where there was a cross assimilation of both cultures, and the impact of such an inspirational prophetic hero as Daniel. 
These Wise Men would have also studied any unusual or momentous activity of a night star in the heavens, as this was often interpreted by astrologers to be the sign of the birth of a great ruler. By observing the charts of the heavens and calculating the timing of a convergence of two great planets shining as a bright star they would have tracked that ‘great light’ that shone at the birth of Jesus. 

They followed this great light to the region of the special birth and arrived at Jerusalem and asked people about the birth of the new king of Israel and his whereabouts, but their presence in the city and the questions they were asking the local people came to the ears of the local ruler, Herod. Herod was a local tribal king who acted as an intermediary to Caesar, and he worked with the proconsuls and the military leadership in the region around Jerusalem. He had become agitated and threatened by the news of this supposed special child whose birth had been predicted, and he had heard that Israel had a record in their Scriptures of such an event heralding the birth of a Messiah or a new king to rule over them. It was rumoured that this special child would begin a new kingdom in the earth. He did not quite know what this meant, but he didn’t want that sort of competition because he had his own dynasty to create.

He urgently called for the Jewish priests and leaders and pressed them concerning the predicted time and place of this special birth. Certain scribes and teachers knew from the words of the prophet Micah in the Scriptures about the region of the child’s birth in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), and that a great star would appear at that time. Armed with this knowledge Herod secretly summonsed the Wise Men to his palace and told them the whereabouts of the region where they might find news of the child. He asked them to come back and inform him of the child’s exact location, telling them that he too wanted to worship this new king, but all he wanted to know was where to send his garrison of soldiers so that the child could be killed.

After their meeting with Herod the Wise Men followed the star which remained bright in the sky and they were guided to the house where Joseph and Mary and the child Jesus were still staying. When the men were invited to see the child, they went down on their knees and worshipped him and presented him with special and peculiar gifts which have a spiritual message for us today about the life that Jesus lived for us and gave for us in his time on the earth.
There was the gift of gold, which speaks to us of the nature of God on display in the life of Jesus that would also be at work in those who believe in his life living within them.
There was frankincense which speaks to us of sweet prayer ascending from our hearts. 
There was myrrh which speaks to us of the suffering of Jesus, and how we share in that suffering in our lives, knowing that without that there is no spiritual growth.

That same night Gabriel gave a message to the Wise Men in a dream warning them not to report back to Herod, so the men departed and returned to their homeland another way. After their departure the Angel also appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt, and to stay there until he brought further word. He warned him that Herod was seeking the young child to destroy him, so Joseph took Mary and the young child and departed for Egypt that night. 

Herod died soon after this, and Gabriel spoke to Joseph in another dream that it was now safe to leave Egypt, fulfilling another prophecy which was spoken through the prophet Hosea; ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son’ (Hosea 11:1). 
Joseph then learned that the son of Herod, who now ruled in his father’s place, was as treacherous and murderous as his father, and he was afraid to go back to the area, but Gabriel appeared to Joseph again in a dream and told him to go to a quiet lakeside village in Galilee where they would be safe, so they came and settled in a city called Nazareth. And yet another prophesy was fulfilled, ‘He shall be called a Nazarene’ (Matthew 2:23). They settled there as a family for many years, where Jesus grew from a child into an adult. 
The Bible tells us of the growth of the life of Jesus into wisdom and maturity and grace.
Luke 2:51 Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.
These three qualities and characteristics of the life of Jesus marked the way of life that shaped his pathway forward in life. They are imparted to us as virtues to be honoured and believed in and taken up, by our faith in his life, that dwells within us.
Wisdom is not just knowledge, but it is the way that harmonises knowledge and good intention to serve the highest good for the most people. 
Stature is the nobility of character that is formed by consistent acts of wisdom.
Favour is the acceptance and approval that comes forth to meet the one of wisdom and stature and give them passage or right of way. It is the gift of grace.

There was a further prophecy that Simeon spoke over Jesus at the time of his circumcision in the temple, that we spoke about at the beginning.
‘This one is assigned for the fall and rise of many in Israel and as a sign that will be opposed and denied by multitudes in all the earth, so that the thoughts of their hearts might be revealed. 
This prophecy declares Jesus as being the one whose life is a sign and a symbol of the way of life and truth for each one of us to follow. This way of life will reveal the thoughts and intentions of each of our hearts as being those that either receive and follow that way of life or they that oppose and reject it. 
For the one whose heart receives and follows in the ways of wisdom and stature and favour (grace) – their life will rise into unity with God. 
For the one whose heart opposes and denies those ways - their life falls into alienation from the life of God. (Ephesians 4:17)
Our past is usually a mixture of rises and falls - but God wants us to be people that rise up into his likeness instead of falling into a downward spiral of wrong behaviour or bad habits – the non-virtue that damages our soul. There is a way of faith that can get us from the downward spiral of non-virtue into the upward rise of virtue.

As far as our brain is concerned there is actually a neurological process that allows the formation of a bad habit – a non-virtue, to grow a life of its own. Repeating the wrong behaviour habitually forms a neural pathway that forms a tiny cellular arrangement of cells that seats itself at a junction deep down in the brain. Over time that place becomes a ‘go to’ place where that experience and sensation automatically fires up dopamine motivation and reward processes which starts a harmful behaviour spiral down to hitting rock bottom, with the consequences of causing harm to ourselves and/or others. 
Ephesians 4:22 put off your old self, which belongs to your former bad behaviour (anastrophe- drawing you down) and is corrupt through deceitful desires (delusional longings), and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true virtue and holiness.
But when we make the promises to ourselves to cease that harmful behaviour and its consequences, we find that the pathways are formed, and the habit space has become a spiritual stronghold waiting at the junction. It waits to hijack anything that wants to take our new anti-bad habit idea to the frontal lobes of our brain where our brain is created to make wise decisions. But that bad habit space is there to stay, and that is where we need faith. The Holy Spirit helps us to be aware of that behaviour and to bring it to the Lord for his grace to overcome it. The work of our faith is to create a more fulfilling virtue space, created in the likeness of Jesus, and it is at this point where we draw from the life of Jesus within us by our faith. We put off the old and get renewed in the spirit of our mind and put on the new which is created in true holiness in the image of God.  We can get used to running down the bunny trails of bad habits but God says 'no’ I'm going to let you have a highway of holiness and I'm going to be with you as you create that - and as you come to me new pathways will be formed.

Through what Jesus accomplished in his short journey in the earth, the bond of oneness (peace) which he experienced with his Heavenly Father – He was building a highway which would become available to all of us, to grow and mature together as sons and daughters in his family, in wisdom and stature and favour (grace) with God and man. 
Through the birth of this child divine life had been embedded into human life – His life sacrificed - then risen to life again - then sent into humanity through the Holy Spirit. This had never happened before, this new form of life - God and man together - a new creation. And because of this new creation a new flow of life between man and God can occur, whereby God transforms us and gives us grace for our hearts to be subdued into desiring his will above our own. 
The Scriptures speak forcefully of this transforming power.
Philippians 1:6 Be confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
Philippians 2:13 For it is God who works in you both to will and to do His good will.
Philippians 3:21 He will transform our lesser body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
By coming before The lord in quietness and confidence with a faith filled heart and being present with him, his grace acts upon us by the Holy Spirit to transform us into his likeness - body, soul and spirit. In the body by those new pathways being formed in the neurophysiology in our brain, in the soul because our surrendered will is subdued by his will, and in the spirit because we are one spirit with him – We rise above the values of this world into those of his Kingdom above. Amen.